Xenia, these are still lives dealing with food or where the focal point is food. For a patron that is a farmer, this type of painting is used to exhibit that great harvest from that time period

The last is Natura Mortem. These are works that deal with death, the good hunt that needs to be recorded. In some ways these may be looked at as a type of thanks to the animals soul for providing food, but more likely it was the rich patron wanting his catch shown off and memorialized.

But, as is the case with most schools of art there is always just the plain ol’ still life, nothing more, nothing less. They may be an exercise for the artist as in practice or they maybe showing off technique.